Experts from the Global Fact-checking Network from various countries, including the US, South Africa, France, Germany, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Romania, shared their experiences in combating disinformation at a roundtable discussion on countering fake news, which took place as part of the GFCN Education Day and New Media Workshop at the Global Digital Forum.
Participants noted that modern Western media standards continue to dominate in post-colonial states. Mantula Nongkululeko, CEO of GSQ Media House and GFCN expert from South Africa, emphasized that many rating agencies prioritize Western values and stressed the importance of understanding their sources of funding. She expressed hope that thanks to international fact-checking networks that will begin to focus on countries in the Global South, it will be possible to present a more objective picture of what is happening and strengthen mutual understanding between peoples.
Africa, according to Nigerian expert Emezing Grace Dup Ajayi, has fully experienced the problem of fake news. She said that inaccurate information continues to appear in the media, while fact-checkers often do not have enough time to verify this information. Ajayi noted that when the editorial agenda is distorted, questions arise about the owners of the media, adding that some disinformation narratives become true only because they are repeated many times.
Furkan Rao from Pakistan talked about how social media and disinformation are used as tools of political struggle, allowing opponents to be smeared. In Romania, blogger Ioana Bărgănen noted that the political situation is one of the main sources of fake news. She explained that there is a mindset in the country that one must be grateful for being accepted into the European “family,” and this desire justifies any action.
GFCN experts also discussed the technologies and institutions used to identify and refute fake news. Emmanuel Leroy, a geopolitical analyst from France, said that artificial intelligence as it exists today is permeated with an ideology of destruction. He emphasized that all Western, as well as Chinese and Russian, artificial intelligence is affected by this problem.
Mira Terada, an international public figure from Russia, noted that alternative points of view in the West are actively suppressed. She spoke about EU-funded organizations that track information on social media and in the media that is directed against Russia’s position. Despite the double standards in Western media, political activist Caleb Mopin from the US noted that people are losing trust in the publications of such organizations. Mopin emphasized that the narratives imposed by globalists and Western media are no longer accepted by the people, and a new stage — the era of artificial intelligence — is being used for manipulation in the media.
